Last Sunday I was in Munich and thought I should check out the Arena. I assumed I'd go on the stadium tour, but it turned out that TSV were playing so I decided to go and see the game. TSV are in the 2nd Division, so the prices asked are not that cheap. A decent seat on the halfway would have cost me €36, but anyway I wanted to check out the safe standing, and that was only €16. The Arena is a fabulous creation, and it is remarkable how it can be "re-branded" according to whether Bayern or TSV are at home. When it comes to refreshments, including a decent Munich beer, they have a system which I presume speeds up the service. No cash is accepted, you have to pick up an Arena Card, which you charge with a certain amount of money, and then use that to buy your refreshments. That system works very well if you are a regular. Less well if you are a day tripper.
Anyway to the safe standing. At first I wondered if I was in the right place, as there were only seats. I have a feeling that this is not the rail seat system that Schalke have. It is simply seats with a wide enough space that you can comfortably stand, and occasionally there are some rails too. It is basically a seated section where the default behaviour is standing. In this case with the ground only a quarter full, I was able to sit 90% of the time and see everything, while those who chose to stand, did. However at the far end, behind the visiting goal there is a section which really has no seats at all, just rails. Anyway, the message is, it works fine.
Apart from that, the Arena is very good at retaining the noise. So the atmosphere was decent, I could hear the Union Berlin fans loud and clear. I doubt the London Olympic stadium can achieve that , the rake of the seating is much lower.
It is actually a bit of a schlep to the U-Bahn station but it is a big open walkway. The home and away fans mingled and chatted together without any problem, although admittedly this was a match with little hanging on it (TSV cantered to a 3-0 win). The crowd was 18,000, one of their lower. In the Bundesliga 2 the crowds that day ranged between 35,000 plus at Kaiserslautern and only 2,500 at Paderborn. It was all very civilised but I noticed that German crowds, like Czech crowds, don't engage with the game as we do. An English crowd reacts as one to all kinds of moves. This lot relied on the "Ultras" to keep a constant cavalcade of chanting, but it had little to do with the ebb and flow of the game. Dont know if I have explained that, but I guess it is another reason why foreign fans enjoy our atmosphere.
Anyway on the safe standing. If I had wanted to sit, I could have done. Most tickets are for seating. I went in the standing section, and in fact I could sit down most of the time too. And I paid twelve quid. What's not to like?
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I don't think that holds true now, especially for ground hoppers who visit here. You have to pick (and get tickets to) a top, top game or derby.
The card system annoys me, but I have only ever done one-off trips to places with them so have always had a bit left over. I don't know how they work that for away fans.
Presumably one card and two/three mates chip in some money. You can also go to the bars and buy beer traditionally.
The beer sold inside the stadium is Paulaner:
http://www.paulaner-brauerei.de/205.0.html?ac=1